Frequent Stroke Risk Higher for Some Hispanics

Study finds,Mexican-Americans with atrial fibrillation twice as likely to suffer a second stroke compared to whites.
Mexican-American stroke survivors with a heart rhythm disorder called atrial fibrillation are more than twice as likely to suffer a second stroke compared to white patients, a new study finds.
It also found that even though these strokes are more likely to be severe among Mexican-Americans, they don't have a greater risk of death after a second stroke.
In people with atrial fibrillation, the heart's upper chambers (atria) beat irregularly and don't pump blood effectively. This can cause blood to pool within the atria, which can lead to the formation of blood clots that can break off and travel to the brain, causing a stroke.
This study included 88 Mexican-Americans and 148 white stroke survivors with atrial fibrillation. Compared to the white patients, the Mexican-American stroke survivors were younger, less likely to have completed 12 years of education, more likely to have diabetes, and less likely to have a primary care physician.
Over a median follow-up of 427.5 days, 19 Mexican-Americans and 14 whites had at least one recurrent stroke. All but one of those cases involved an ischemic stroke, which is caused by blocked blood flow to the brain. One Mexican-American patient suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, which is bleeding in the brain.
"Based on some of our prior research, we were not necessarily surprised by the higher recurrence rate in Mexican-Americans with atrial fibrillation, but the greater severity of recurrent strokes in Mexican-Americans was surprising," co-author Dr. Darin B. Zahuranec, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Research Center in Ann Arbor, said in an American Heart Association news release.
One reason for the difference in stroke rates could be that Mexican-Americans may not have managed the blood-thinning drug warfarin -- often used to prevent stroke -- in the most optimal way, Zahuranec said. He and his colleagues did not evaluate outpatient use of warfarin, which might have contributed to the increased risk of stroke in Mexican-Americans.

The New Study Identifies Risks for Painkiller Addiction

Greater odds if you're younger than 65, have a history of drug violence and depression, and use psychiatric meds. The mystery of why some people are more likely to become obsessed to opioid painkillers has been partially unraveled by the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania.
Its researchers found that the group most helpless to addiction has four main risk factors in common: age a history of depression, prior drug abuse, and using psychiatric medications. Painkiller dependence rates among patients with these factors are as high as 26 percent.
For the study, they interviewed and analyzed DNA from 705 patients with back pain who were arranged opioid painkillers -- a class that includes such narcotics as morphine and codeine -- for more than 90 days.
The researchers also studied a gene on chromosome 15 that has been connected with alcohol, cocaine and nicotine addiction. The data recommended that DNA mutations on a gene gather on chromosome 15 may also be associated with opioid addiction. "These results suggest that patients with pre-existing risk factors are more likely to become addicted to painkillers, providing the basis for further clinical evaluation," Joseph Boscarino, an epidemiologist and senior researcher at Geisinger's Center for Health Research, said in a health system news release.
"By assessing patients in chronic pain for these risk factors before prescribing painkillers, doctors will be better able to treat their patients' pain without the probable for future drug addiction," he added. Boscarino and colleagues also said these same risk factors may enlarge the risk of drug addiction in patients without a history of chronic pain.

Indication of Heart Attack, Stroke Risk From Fat-Filled Artery

A quantity of factors put patients with irregular fatty deposits in an artery at high risk for heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death, a new study shows. Patients in different stages of this condition atherothrombosis  are at enlarged risk for heart attack and stroke stemming from cheap blood flow from the artery blockage, but some are at better risk than others. In an analysis of more than 45,000 patients, the researchers found that patients with abnormal fatty deposits in an artery were at highest risk if they had a prior history of heart attack or other emergencies linked to an artery blockage.
Reduction of the arteries in various locations also greatly increased the risk for patients with atherothrombosis, as did diabetes for all the patients even those with only the risk factors for atherothrombosis.
Perceptive that these factors boost the risk can help physicians take preventive action, according to the researchers, who are from the VA Boston Healthcare System, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
The researchers analyzed data from 45,227 patients enrolled in an worldwide study known as Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health (REACH) between 2003 and 2004. They collected detailed information from the patients when they enrolled and conducted follow-ups one, two, three and four years later.
They establish that 81.3 percent of the patients had hypertension, 70.4 percent had high cholesterol levels in the blood, and 15.9 percent had polyvascular disease. In adding, 48.4 percent of the patients had "ischemic events" prior heart attacks, unstable angina or other problems related to the artery blockage, with 28.1 percent of those patients having had such an event within the previous year.
During the follow-up period, 2,315 patients suffered cardiovascular death, 1,228 had a heart attack, 1,898 had a stroke, and 40 had a heart attack and a stroke on the similar day.
The researchers establish that patients with atherothrombosis with a previous history of heart attacks and other events related to a blood vessel blockage had the highest rate of following cardiac emergencies linked to blood flow problems. Patients with stable heart, cerebrovascular or peripheral route disease had a lower risk, while the risk was lowest amongst those with risk factors for atherothrombosis but without established disease.
The results show that "there is a entire spectrum of [emergencies relating to artery blockage and blood flow] in patients with risk factors or with recognized cardiovascular disease easily ascertainable clinical characteristics are the famous factors associated with a high risk of future ischemic events," they fulfilled.

Over 1,300 swine flu cases last week, protection advised

India persistent to report an increase in swine flu cases, with 79 deaths and over 1,300 new patients in the last week, officials said Monday, emphasising precautions including vaccinations to prevent the sickness.

According to health ministry officials, a total of 1,335 cases of swine flu infection were reported for the period of last week, all of them being indigenous cases of infection.

'Till date, samples from 163,289 persons have been experienced for Influenza A H1N1 in government laboratories and a few private laboratories across the country and 38,730 (23.7 percent) of them have been found positive,' an official declaration from the health ministry said.

The government is temporarily emphasising on preventive measures stressing specifically on the vaccinations. 'The highest number of sufferers is of pregnant women and those suffering from other ailments,' a health ministry official told IANS.

The highest number of deaths (40) was reported from Maharashtra. The state has been reporting the largest number of infections of swine flu for more than a month with the number touching 411 this week. The second leading number of cases were reported from Karnataka which had 291 cases and eight deaths, followed by Delhi which had 257 new cases and five deaths.

The second highest death payment, however, was from Gujarat which reported only 42 cases but 12 deaths in a week. The number of cases stay behind to be high in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu as well with 103 and 72 cases from the two states.

Kerala, which reported the maximum number of cases in the opening of this season of swine flu in the country has, however, stabilised with only nine cases being reported last week. The health ministry official said, Preventative measure is needed and the ministry is doing its best to make the people conscious about the methods to avoid swine flu'.

'We have two local vaccines. In adding to that, ads focusing on target group of the pregnant women and old or ailing persons are also being aired. So far, swine flu has claimed 2,024 lives in India since its outbreak in May last year.